Meet the Sewer Fishing King of Katy, Texas

There’s a grand tradition in Texas of going down to the old fishing hole, but sometimes the fishing hole isn’t the pastoral setting that comes to mind.

Kyle Nagley, 16, has pioneered – and some might say created – the art of sewer fishing.

Nagley tells Texas Standard host David Brown that his unique hobby started about four years ago when he was just 12.

Nagley estimates he’s caught over 500 fish in the last four years, and he doesn’t have to go further than his driveway to do it. Nagley’s largest catch, so far, has been a three-pound catfish. The system he uses is simple, but effective: He threads a fishing line through a openings in a manhole cover, then attaches a hook and a cork.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Nagley says.”The drain connects to a pond about a hundred yards away, and I think they swim in the pipe and get in there somehow.”

When fish bite, they pull the cork so that it stands upright on the cover. Technically, Nagley doesn’t even have to be present when the fish set on the hook: oftentimes he leaves a line out overnight, finding a fish on the end in the morning.